Tag: Stephen Timms

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2014-03-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the extent of (a) fraud, (b) duplication of job entries and (c) entries for non-existent jobs in the Universal Jobmatch website.

Esther McVey

Today, many jobs are only advertised on the internet. That’s why we are doing everything we can to give those looking for work the skills and the opportunities to access them. Universal Jobmatch is a powerful tool for successfully connecting people to jobs, and it is delivering.

The website launches a public service into the digital age, allowing people to search for work from their home, handheld devices, local libraries, as well as the traditional Jobcentre. It allows employers to match jobseekers to their vacancies and gives our customers access to a greater number of opportunities. It puts them on an equal footing with everyone else seeking a new job in the UK. With over 6 million job searches per a day, the service is clearly popular, successful, and value for money.

At 18 March 2014, there were 507,474 vacancies on the service.

All internet job sites face the issue of duplicate vacancies. We take this issue very seriously, and whenever we have a doubt about the validity of a job offer we will intervene, suspend the vacancy and investigate. If an employer breaches our terms and conditions we remove their right to advertise. Our continuing removal of such employers or jobs demonstrates that our system of checks works.

Since Universal Jobmatch was launched in November 2012, we have removed 1216 employer accounts that did not comply with our terms and conditions. That figure is equivalent to 0.2% of the total number of registered employer accounts.

Universal Jobmatch has revolutionised the way we deliver the public employment service. With over 6,000,000 job searches per day at a cost of far less than 1 pence each, it represents excellent value for money.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2014-04-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when his Department plans to publish revised statistics on the number of people who have successfully appealed a sanction decision.

Esther McVey

DWP statisticians identified an error in the JSA sanctions appeal outcomes data. In line with normal practice for official statistics the Department has withdrawn this particular set of information. The data will be made available again as soon as possible pending investigations by DWP statisticians who will, if necessary, make corrections to this data.

For further information see here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/jobseekers-allowance-sanctions

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2014-04-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what requirements were placed on a Work Programme participant who finds a job without help from their provider to supply proof of employment to the provider; and what sanctions there are for failing to do so.

Esther McVey

DWP and its providers encourage Work Programme participants to share their employment details because, even where an individual has secured work themselves, the provider may be able to offer the claimant both initial support in starting work and ongoing in–work support to help sustain employment. There is, however, no direct requirement for a Work Programme participant to supply proof of employment to a provider once they find a job and they will not be sanctioned for failing to do so.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2014-04-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many staff of his Department’s staff worked in a Jobcentre Plus Rapid Response team in each year since 2004.

Esther McVey

We do not hold this information.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2014-03-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many entries there are on the Universal Jobmatch database; and what his estimate is of the number of vacancies such entries represent.

Esther McVey

Today, many jobs are only advertised on the internet. That’s why we are doing everything we can to give those looking for work the skills and the opportunities to access them. Universal Jobmatch is a powerful tool for successfully connecting people to jobs, and it is delivering.

The website launches a public service into the digital age, allowing people to search for work from their home, handheld devices, local libraries, as well as the traditional Jobcentre. It allows employers to match jobseekers to their vacancies and gives our customers access to a greater number of opportunities. It puts them on an equal footing with everyone else seeking a new job in the UK. With over 6 million job searches per a day, the service is clearly popular, successful, and value for money.

At 18 March 2014, there were 507,474 vacancies on the service.

All internet job sites face the issue of duplicate vacancies. We take this issue very seriously, and whenever we have a doubt about the validity of a job offer we will intervene, suspend the vacancy and investigate. If an employer breaches our terms and conditions we remove their right to advertise. Our continuing removal of such employers or jobs demonstrates that our system of checks works.

Since Universal Jobmatch was launched in November 2012, we have removed 1216 employer accounts that did not comply with our terms and conditions. That figure is equivalent to 0.2% of the total number of registered employer accounts.

Universal Jobmatch has revolutionised the way we deliver the public employment service. With over 6,000,000 job searches per day at a cost of far less than 1 pence each, it represents excellent value for money.